


urban legend busting with shiho and ren

by luckiecharms



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Or Is he?, Persona 5 Protagonist is from Inaba, Post-Canon, The Use Of The Name Amamiya Ren, akechi goro is fuckin dead, and so we are here, i have no idea how the midnight channel works and i refuse to learn, ren bullying and other extreme sports, shiho + ren being idiots in inaba, shiho moved to inaba, you'll never know lol, yu + yosuke are rens dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:27:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21609043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckiecharms/pseuds/luckiecharms
Summary: ren and shiho are stuck at ren's house during a rainy night, so naturally they decide to test an old urban legend.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren & Suzui Shiho, Amamiya Ren/Mishima Yuuki, Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Kurusu Akira & Suzui Shiho, Suzui Shiho/Takamaki Ann, those are both more implied than anything lol
Comments: 13
Kudos: 147





	urban legend busting with shiho and ren

**Author's Note:**

> back at it again fuckers!
> 
> first off, i'd like to say, i really went fuck canon timelines with this and i do not care in the slightest. p5 took place in 2018. p4 took place.... however much earlier than it did canonically to make the fact that yu + yosuke are ren's dads work. i still gotta figure that out.
> 
> second off, i'd like to thank the shuake secret santa server for reading this over for me i love yall v much mwah. stan shuake always you funky fellas. i'd especially like to thank [lev](https://twitter.com/gorodaily) in particular for adding the most commentary thank youuuuu i appreciate u vm <3

"Are you  _ sure _ this is a good idea?"

The voice was a whisper, barely heard over the thundering rain outside. There was a scoff in response, and in the dim, flickering light of the TV the two figures were seated in front of, one of the two, the brunette girl, grins.

"Don't be a coward," she whispers in reply to her companion, a raven haired boy with thick framed glasses hiding gunmetal grey eyes. "You're the one who brought this up in the first place!"

"Yeah," the boy concedes, though reluctantly. "But I wasn't the one who said we should do it! My dads told me not to ever mess around with this! The only reason I'm here is to keep  _ you _ from getting in trouble."

"Daddy's boy. Coward. Stinky loser coward boy. I'm telling Ann and she's gonna laugh at you."

At the mention of the girl's girlfriend, the boy groans despairingly, stretching forward in his cross-legged position as he does. the popping sounds his joints make at the action are nearly masked by a roll of thunder.

"Shihooooo, nooooooo. Don't tell her, she'll tell Ryuji who will tell pretty much everyone else. I'll be ruined forever."

The girl, Shiho, laughs, eliciting a groan from her companion once again.

"Then you gotta do this with me! Come  _ on _ Ren, who  _ cares _ what your dads say? It's just a stupid urban legend, it probably won't even work!"

"I care..." Ren mumbles in reply, even as he rolls his eyes. "Fine, okay. You're right, it probably won't even work since there's two of us..."

"Yeah! So what are you afraid of?"

_ Actually seeing something. The story behind the midnight channel being the cause of string of disappearances and murders from years ago being true. Something happening and him being unable to do anything about it. _

All these options ran through his mind, but he only elected to say "nothing," instead. After his year in Tokyo, he was wary about things like this- there were the murders and disappearances from years ago that were rumored to be related to the urban legend, and his dads told him to stay away from it, and that's not something he could just ignore. So he was wary. 

"Then stop whining like a baby! Now, what time is it?"

Shiho's voice removes him from his thoughts, and he dutifully pulls out his phone to check the time. 

"11:14." He announces, now checking the few notifications he has. A text from Yuuki, a spam of texts from Futaba, a severe weather alert, a text from pops telling him that under no circumstances was he to go outside in this weather. The usual stuff. 

"Aww, we really gotta wait almost an hour?" Shiho grumbles, pouting and leaning back against her arms as carefully as she could without aggravating the injuries she had gotten from her fall a year and a half ago. Ren shrugs, not looking all that upset by this.

"Looks like it. Don't complain, you're the one who wanted to do this in the first place."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just, ughhhh, that's too long! Almost a whole hour! How am I supposed to  _ survive _ ?"

"You aren't." Ren retorts, getting a pillow to the face for his efforts. "Hey!"

Then there's a bright flash from outside that lights the room up briefly, followed by a loud rumble of thunder.

"Oh, it's getting bad out there..." The brunette girl comments, crawling over to the window on her knees and looking out just as another flash of lightning crosses the sky, followed by more thunder and the rain picking up. The TV flickers for a moment, and the two look towards it simultaneously.

"Just the power, probably." Ren comments, and Shiho nods in agreement.

"Yeah. Definitely."

"Are you getting scared?"

"No! You have no proof, shut up!"

"You sound scared though."

The two bicker like this for a bit, as the minutes slowly tick by. Despite her protests, it's easy to tell Shiho is scared- the shake of her voice, the way she looks around the darkened room, jumps at every flash of lightning. She laughs it off nonetheless- it's less embarrassing than outright  _ saying _ she's scared.

Ren is less obvious. There's a tenseness to his posture, as relaxed as it looks, and the way his fingers are wrapped around his phone almost too tightly is also telling. He looks casual despite this, the mask of confidence settling almost too well considering things.

"What time is it?" Shiho asks again eventually, when the bickering has died down and the only sound is the thundering rain pouring outside, peppered with the natural creaks and groans of the house and the sounds of their shuffling movements. Ren checks his phone, rattling off the time- 11:41- before checking the texts from Yuuki and Futaba. A goodnight and a spam of heart emojis from the former, and a bunch of distorted anime memes from the latter. Usual shenanigans, though admittedly ones that make his heart ache for Tokyo.

"Ughhhh time isn't going fast enough!" The brunette groans, getting an eye roll from her friend.

"You're the one who wanted to do an event that specifically took place at midnight." He reminds her, getting a pout from the girl.

"Shut up!" She replies, voice rising in pitch at the second word as a flash of lightning startles her. Ren snorts, and she narrows him with a death glare- though any effect was lost when she jumped in surprise as the TV flickered once more in unison with a crash of thunder. "Stop laughing, you ass!"

"What was that about you not being scared?"

"Shut up!" She says again, pushing him. He falls back, still laughing, the action causing his phone screen to light up, displaying the lockscreen. the time read 11:49. 10 minutes, roughly.

"Why do you even care so much? You and Ann are like, hopelessly in love and all that, why do you care about whether or not you see your soulmate in the TV?" He asks, an eyebrow raising. She shrugs in reply.

"I dunno, I just want to know if it works, really. Curiosity and all that, you know?"

"Curiosity killed the cat, though." Ren points out, and this time it's Shiho who rolls her eyes.

"And satisfaction brought it back! Checkmate, gremlin boy."

"We weren't even playing chess..." He retorts, eliciting another shrug from his companion. "Oh, whatever. Hey, it's almost time- five minutes."

"Finally! It feels like I've been waiting forever."

"Don't be dramatic."

"I'll be as dramatic as I want!" Shiho exclaims, but falls quiet nonetheless, and the two wait in tense silence only punctuated by the ambient noises of the rain and the house.

Minutes tick by, Ren checking his phone, until the time on his lockscreen glowed  _ 12:05 AM _ , and nothing appeared on the TV.

"Like I said-" he began, about to gloat as he rightfully deserves when he gets a shiver down his spine, and the TV screen lights up with static. He stares, wide-eyed, for a few moments, as  _ something _ begins to appear, and then he exchanges glances with a white-faced Shiho.

" _ What the hell _ ," she whispers, and Ren can't offer up an answer. The thing on the screen- a person, he can tell now- is getting clearer. He can't make out any specifics yet, besides the hair that is a terrifyingly familiar shade of light brown, and honestly, he's terrified of what he might see.

He hesitantly crawls closer to the TV, despite Shiho's hissed " _ Ren, _ " and he raises his hand, hovering it over the screen. His heart is thundering in his ears, and as the figure gets clearer, it gets so much harder to breathe. Light brown hair, maroon eyes, a familiar face that makes his heart seize. The face of a dead man, a dead man nobody but him and his friends remembered. He reaches a hand forward, fingers resting on the screen, and then it  _ ripples _ , and he's barely able to take a moment to register that when the lights- the TV light, the streetlights outside, the bit of hall light visible underneath the door, all go dark and Shiho  _ screams _ .

It's a sound that makes him, already shaken, jump, the remnants of his cool and confident façade shattering. He crawls back away from the TV, barely hearing anything besides the loud thudding of his heart in his ears. He barely notices when the lights come back on outside, doesn't register anything until he feels a gentle hand on his arm and he exhales the breath he didn't even know he was holding.

"Dude, you okay?" Shiho asks, and he shakes his head a bit.

"I saw someone," he whispers, still half in disbelief. "Shiho,  _ i saw someone _ ."

"You did?" 

"Yeah..."

Before he can say anything else though, the door opens, and the beam of a flashlight lights up the room, held by one of Ren's dads. 

"Renny, everything okay? I heard a scream." The man asks, and Ren nods.

"Yeah, that was Shiho. We both were kinda spooked when the lights went out."

Shiho glares at Ren in betrayal for a brief 0.5 seconds, even as she laughs sheepishly.

"Ehehe, sorry Hanamura-san. We didn't mean to worry you guys.

"Yeah, sorry dad. Didn't mean to worry you guys."

"Alright. The power isn't expected to be on for another few hours, so when Yosuke finds the candles we'll bring a few up, okay?"

"Sounds good, thanks dad."

"Welcome kiddo, let us know if you need anything."

With that, Ren's dad leaves, and Shiho turns to the messy-haired boy to continue their conversation from earlier.

"Dude, you  _ really _ saw someone?"

"I literally said that twice Shiho, keep up."

"Okay, smartass, are you gonna tell me who you saw then?"

"No, you get to live in permanent suspense. You did this to yourself."

"Rude! Tell me, tell me!"

"Absolutely not."

"Come on, Ren!"

"Nope."

"Ren!"

**Author's Note:**

> make sure to leave comments and kudos so that i may thrive!! thanks for reading uwuwuwuwu


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